Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom Available Now

And, we’re back! Last month I dropped in to give you all a taste of the artwork behind the Ancient Tales mode of Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom for PS3 (available now on the PS Store for $9.99). This time around, I thought you’d be interested to learn a little more about how we at TikGames and Creat Studios designed the various tile layouts you’ll see, both in the story book adventure and in the Infinity Mode.

A lot of people assume that Mahjong layouts are generated randomly, sometimes creating layouts that are impossible to solve. Not so! In Mahjong Tales, each level started from a set of algorithms we wrote and was then completed with manual touches. Basically, we allow the game to randomly populate the individual tiles for match-up (i.e., whether a particular tile is a red dragon or green dragon), but the pairings themselves (i.e., this tile and that tile are a matched pair) are done by hand. Combining an automated algorithm and our own know-how in designing levels means that we can guarantee that every layout will have a solution and that there’s an appropriate level of challenge for players. This keeps gameplay fun and enticing for everyone.

In fact, the vast majority of the time spent developing Mahjong Tales went into editing tile layout. Our game designers and balancing engineers worked tirelessly on those algorithms and ramping rules (how tile layers are created), while experimenting with various arrangements and hand touch-ups. The entire time that the art, audio and various features were being integrated, that core team of designers and engineers was continually refining the gameplay — tweaking and playing, tweaking and playing…

Plus, we built the tiles in 3D and enforced physics rules, so that players would feel like they were handling a real Mahjong set. It was important to us to ensure that not only could our Mahjong tile layouts be solved, but that they could exist just as if they were made with actual, physical tiles. If you wanted to, you could recreate in real life every layout we made (and any of those created in the level editor to be released later).

I hope this gives you a little insight into what goes into making Mahjong tile layouts. We’re so proud of the results we got from our efforts in making them, we decided to recognize players for their dedication in completing all of our Infinity Mode tile layouts. If you complete all 100 of our tile layouts, you’ll receive 30 points and a silver trophy entitled “Infinity and Beyond.” Good luck!

Cuboid is awesome too, but not knowing how to play this game should not be an impediment. The game is easy to learn, though beastly hard to master. The game we started with is known as \”Mahjong Solitaire\” and the basic idea is to match tiles. It\’s a little more complex than that but not a whole lot. The game variations are straight-forward and the HELP is very simple and clear. Go for it!!!

Take a look at how comprehensive the product is and you may change your opinion. You get Tales Mode, (modified gameplay with awesome stories), Motion Mode (action mahjong single player and head-to-head), Infinity (editor) and Classic Mode with tons of pre-made layouts, tile sets and background choices. It\’s a LOT of Mahjong plus original gameplay.

:) There are a few modes… Motion is for 1-player. You need to keep the dragon from eating your tiles and the power-ups are a pretty cool addition to the traditional matching gameplay. Motion also has a head-to-head opthon which is my favorite. There\’s no dragon, but you get to race against your friends or family. The level editor has a lot to offer also and Tales Mode has specific \”gold matching\” bonus gameplay that\’s beyond the norm.

A demo please…probably fun modes. But keep in mind that there is lot of majhong game on the web for free, so maybe with a demo including sample of your different mode should be interesting, but as Cuboid, I prefer to play to the flash games until there is a demo of these games!

I want to get both this game and Cuboid but I don’t have enough money!!!! (Me and my brother split the money in our account, and if I get both I’ll be using his half as well…)

I’ll definately pick this one up eventually, I just need to wait until I get more money into our account!

Anyways, this game looks very cool! I’m actually not really into Mahjong, but you guys spent a lot of time with this one, and you really made it interesting to a more broader audience. It caught my attention so I’m going to purchase it! Nice work guys, this will soon be a welcome addition to my collection of PSN titles! :)

@Howard Lehr
I think you are missing the point Mr. Lehr. I am not a fan of Mahjong. But I would gladly support any other games you guys make for the PSN in the future. :)
I hope you guys next game is original. It don’t have to be innovative, just fun.

I got it from the Euro store last week and it’s incredibly fun and challenging. I never played Mahjong before but I really enjoyed this one. The production values, presentation, polish and different modes justify the price.

This brings me to my question: when is Cuboid coming to the Euro store? I’d love to buy another Tik game and I am looking forward to Magic Ball as well. I hope you got even more games planned for us this year.

Thanks for a game that got me away from all the stress associated with most games these days. I needed it.

I think the game is great!
I love Mahjong and there is so much additional content with this one it makes it WAY better than the Vista version, plus online and local play with a REAL second player.
I got Cuboid too that game is crazy nuts fun!

I checked out the TikGames website you guys need to update that to include PS3 games now, it only says PC, Mobile and Xbox right now.

Also it would be SWEET to bring Monopoly and some form of Billards game to the PSN since I see you already have them there. Monopoly and Billiards online would ROCK!

I picked this up today because my gf loves Mahjong. I’ve been pretty bad at Mahjong in the past, but this game does a great job of leading you into the experience in the story mode, I can actually see myself improving as I advance through the levels.

I bought Mahjong Tales and my wife and I love it!! The only thing we would like to see is a patch for mouse support. The controller works great but the other (non-gamer) members of my family who love Mahjong are afraid to use the controller, plus Mahjong and a mouse are like peanut butter and jelly. You shouldn’t have one without the other.

Bought Cuboid as well. It is fantastic. My wife and I are playing as I type this. Download now!!

The game does look quite unique, but as it stands I’m not really convinced. A demo is the only thing that’s going to do it past this point, though from a financial perspective it’s most definitely more intelligent to wait a week or two before releasing a demo, so I understand the why. Maybe somewhere down the line…

I like the game but I do have one thing I really would like to see improved (patched):

The sound of the recorded voice that is narrating the tales is recorded so loud that it starts to distort.

My only other annoyance is that the layouts have too many layers. I am used to every layout having something like four copies of each tile but this game has so many it is hard to judge which ones to pair together for the best result.

It is still a great game and it will only get better as more people start to play it online.

I love how some people are speaking negatively about the price, yet you can go to Target or something of that like and spend double or more on a game with less content than these guys put into their game.

Really, I bought this on a whim and I’m really surprised at how much I’m really getting for my money. It’s an extremely pleasant surprise.

Overall the game has been a ton of fun, however I did notice one glitch where on occasion some of the tiles will have a black line down the center of them, on some of the tiles it makes it really difficult to tell what tile you are looking at. I find the issue occurs most in Motion mode, but I have seen it in both Tales and Classic as well.

This is a great game, I got this and cuboid. Very fun. Multiplayer was a blast the one time someone was actually playing. Come on people buy this game and play online already!

As for Custom Soundtracks. i don’t know why nobody answered the 4-5 people that asked about them, but the game does support custom soundtracks. It uses in-game xmb for soundtracks. You hit the ps button in game and go to your music list list in xmb, just select a track or playlist and it plays. Then to stop it, just go back in xmb and stop the song, and it will go back to default game music automatically. I wish more games used this feature…very cool!

That’s a feature, not a bug :) If you look closely, it is a piece of bamboo that covers the centre of the tile. You must match this tile to remove the bamboo & then re-match once the bamboo has been done away with.

I really like Mahjong Tales, been playing it loads. But there are issues with the online game. I’ve chatted to a lot of other players & they report the same – the 2nd player, the guest, often suffers from serious lag leading to them being unable to select tiles quickly. There’s also something similar where both players will have the game stall for a second or two before returning to normal, often leading to the game freezing totally & the PS3 hanging. See my post here: http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=147&thread.id=31290

Still, apart from this there’s a hell of a lot of game for the money £8/$10. Looking forward to the infinity mode level editor!